In Hanns Eislers work catalogue, the Nonet is not a rigidly determined chamber-music genre. The three works for nine instruments in the present volume are based on film scores that Eisler wrote in the United States. The Nonet No. 1 is practically identical to the brief film music to The Living Land (1939); the Suite for Nine Instruments and the Nonet No. 2 were derived from the documentary film The Forgotten Village (1941). In the Nonet No. 1, Eisler borrows the twelve-tone technique of his teacher Schoenberg and handles it with for his standards surprising consistency. As to the lengthier music to The Forgotten Village, Eisler arranged various pieces from it while still in the U.S. (= Suite) as well as after his return to Europe (= Nonet No. 2).